Interestingly, the shorts were red and green – the colors of the national flag of Belarus.

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The interviewer, from the Argentinean newspaper Diario La Nacion, looked a bit more formal, wearing dress shorts. Lukashenko noted that he “had never before talked to the press naked on a beach.”

In the interview, the Belarusian leader praised the development of trade relations between his country and the nations of Latin America.

Lukashenko joins a plethora of heads-of-state, who have been captured in less-than-stately attire – with or without their consent. Vladimir Putin posed on several occasions with a bare torso during his vacation trips. So did Barack Obama and Nicholas Sarkozy, while Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek was caught by paparazzi fully naked while visiting Silvio Berlusconi’s villa resort.